Fuel use in cars much higher than advertised -report / COP23 kick-off

On average, passenger cars in the EU consume 42 percent more fuel than advertised, meaning their emissions are also considerably higher than carmakers say, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Over the last 15 years, the gap in official measurements under laboratory conditions and actual performance on the road has increased by over 400 percent, the ICCT says in a press release. “As a result, less than half of on-paper reductions in CO2-emission values since 2001 have been realised in practice,” it adds.

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT)’s revelation that newly registered passenger cars consume significantly more fuel than advertised highlights the need for better testing, environmental organisation NABU says in a press release. “The car industry’s lie about fuel consumption is becoming ever-more evident,” NABU director Leif Miller says, describing the values determined through testing as little more than “fantasy.” NABU calls for more thorough testing of both particulate matter and CO2 emissions. The European Commission and Germany’s next government must ensure the transport sector reduces emissions in line with climate protection plans, making binding 2030 emissions limits and an e-car quota essential, Miller says.In a separate press release, German transport and environmental association Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VDC) says the EU must enforce “binding CO2 emissions tests and fuel-use tests on the road” to fulfil climate protection plans. “Carmakers have been cheating their customers over fuel consumption for years,” VCD’s Michael Müller-Görnert says. The discrepancy between real and advertised fuel consumption costs the average car owner over 400 euros per year, he adds.

Read the NABU press release in German here and the VCD press release in German here.

Germany will raise its contribution to the climate change adaptation fund by 50 million euros, the environment ministry announced on the opening day of the COP23 climate summit in Bonn. The development cooperation ministry pledged an additional 50 million euros to the Least Developed Countries Fund. Environment minister Barbara Hendricks said this should be a “first impulse for a constructive negotiating atmosphere”.

CLEW will publish an account of the first day of COP23 this afternoon.

Differing views on Germany’s future energy system are emerging as a major source of contention between the parties attempting to establish a new German federal government, Andreas Mihm writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The Greens want Germany to end coal-fired power production within the next decade, while the pro-business FDP and the conservative CDU/CSU insist coal is indispensable for the foreseeable future, Mihm writes. After two weeks of talks, the parties “have not made it beyond the general conclusion that the climate protection goals should be achieved” while preserving energy supply, security and affordability, Mihm writes.

A quick phase-out of coal-fired power production would pose a threat to Germany’s economy, the head of the pro-business party FDP, Christian Lindner, has said in an interview with national broadcaster ZDF, Montel News writes in an article. Closing coal plants while concurrently phasing out nuclear power brought little progress to climate protection but would gravely impair Germany’s energy security, Lindner argued with regard to the Green Party, who calls for a German coal exit by 2030 and currently attempts to form a government together with the FDP and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU union.

Germany needs to demonstrate that “climate protection and economic success are not mutually exclusive,” social democratic Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told weekly newspaper Bild am Sonntag. According to a Spiegel Online article citing the interview, Gabriel said other countries would only follow Germany’s lead if it managed to reconcile ambitious climate policy with job security and industrial success.

Maria Krautzberger, head of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), says Germany should introduce a road charge linked to mileage for all vehicles, to cut emissions from the transport sector. “There has been no emissions reduction whatsoever from the transport sector for 25 years,” Krautzberger told Welt Online in an interview, arguing that overall car use must be cut to lower emissions. Krautzberger said public transport had to be made “more attractive” and that a quota should ensure e-cars accounted for 70 percent for new vehicle registrations by 2030.

Citizens of Munich have voted to shut down the city’s single largest source of CO2 emissions ahead of schedule, klimaretter.info reports. Around 60 percent voted in favour of close the Munich Nord heating plant by 2022, instead of 2035 as planned by the municipal utility SWM. The plant accounts for around 17 percent of Munich’s total carbon emissions, klimaretter.info reports. Stefanie Langkamp of Climate-Alliance Germany said the rest of Germany needed to follow the Munich voters’ lead. “The parties discussing a coalition government in Berlin must set an end date for coal-fired power production,” Langkamp said. A coalition agreement that failed to specify a coal exit would “dodge responsibility and interests of a large part of our citizenship,” she added. In a separate article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Heiner Effern writes that Munich’s mayor says he was going to ask Germany’s Federal Grid Agency (BNetzA) to evaluate an early shutdown of the plant. The BNetzA ultimately decides which plants can be taken off the grid without threatening the system’s stability.

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